Swapping Stories
by detective-wiseass
Summary: The girls take turns telling each other their "story." Sweet and fluffy one-shot. Established Rizzles.


"So…Maura. When, would you say, did you first realize you were in love with me?" A shy, coy smile played at Jane's lips. There was playful laughter in her eyes as she gazed at the lovely medical examiner sitting across from her at the Dirty Robber.

Maura tilted her head slightly to the side and the corners of her eyes crinkled. She took a sip from her wine glass. "I'd have to say it was from the moment I first met you." She quirked one shoulder and gave Jane a full-blown smile. "The very _first _moment. I just knew."

"The first—?" Jane leaned back from the table, incredulous. "But—oh, c'mon, Maura. Seriously? Be honest." She rolled her eyes and pointed for emphasis. "Coy is cute. Hives? Not so much."

"I'm _being _serious, Jane. I mean the very first moment."

"Wait. So, you're saying…you fell in love with a cranky, classless, smartass—"

"And vitamin deficient!" Maura added, as though this had been yet Jane's worst offense that day.

The detective rolled her eyes, suppressing a smile. "_And _vitamin deficient…hooker? Really? You fell in _love _with that?"

Maura's glass halted its trajectory halfway to her lips as she laughed.

"No accounting for taste, I guess," Jane muttered into her own wine glass.

Maura recovered from her mirth long enough to say, "I don't understand why that's so hard to believe, Jane."

"I guess I just—I mean…I just can't imagine what you could've seen there that would've attracted you right off the bat." She gave a mock-seductive grin and tilted her head down, slowly toying with a coil of her raven hair. "I mean, when you met me afterwards, I can see what drew you, then, but…"

Maura laughed again and swatted lightly at Jane's hand. Rather than withdrawing her arm back to her own side of the table, Maura left her hand where it landed, her fingers encircling Jane's. Jane looked down at their hands joined between them, then met Maura's eyes, her expression now solemn. "You really mean it, don't you?"

Maura nodded.

"I honestly don't understand, though. I was so…such a…"

"Jane." Maura squeezed her hand. "I saw the same things in you then that I love so much about you now. I saw a tall, gorgeous young woman. I observed that she had a rapier wit, though she employed it in a less than tactful manner."

Jane smirked at that.

"I saw that this woman was frustrated. She was frustrated because her obstinacy and fierce independence would not allow her to accept help from a stranger." Maura's gaze did not waver from Jane's. Enthralled, the detective couldn't look away, either. "But most importantly, you lied to me."

Jane started to pull away. Defensive. Perplexed.

"You lied to me," Maura repeated, "when you said that not every hooker has a heart of gold."

"But that's true, Maura. Not every—"

Maura stopped her with another hand squeeze. "When you said that, you were clearly implying yourself. You were implying an inherent lack of generosity and capacity for love on your part. Yes, you were in character for a sting when you said it. And yes, your blood sugar was low, so I was speaking to cranky Jane, rather than her gentler twin."

The walls of skepticism were beginning to come down again. Maura could see it in Jane's softening expression. She smiled at the dark-haired beauty across from her. That beautiful woman who was all hers.

"And yes, it is anatomically impossible for a human heart to be comprised of pure gold and still function. But when you finally looked me in the eye, I had a suspicion that you were lying to me, telling me a fundamental untruth about yourself. To create distance. To protect yourself. To protect _both _of us."

Jane swallowed as she realized where this was going. Her other hand spontaneously joined the two that were already linked on the tabletop.

"When I was formally introduced to you later, my suspicion was confirmed. And every moment following that one has proved to me that what I initially suspected about you was true all along." She drew Jane's hand upwards and leaned over the table to press her lips against the backs of Jane's now trembling fingers. "'Not every hooker has a heart of gold,' you said. But I know of only one woman on this entire planet who has a heart of pure platinum."


End file.
